The first F-35B, with the short takeoff/vertical landing capability, is due to fly in May or June, Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin F-35 vice president and general manager, told reporters during a teleconference April 8. There are ongoing issues with the lift fan, however, which the F-35 program executive officer, Air Force Maj. Gen. C.R. Davis, said are well understood and are being fixed. The STOVL version has been hitting all its milestones for 16 months and should be able to fly in the hover mode, as scheduled, in the fourth quarter of this year, Crowley said. The aircraft will fly and be shaken out first in conventional take off and landing mode, working up gradually to hover tests, he said.
The F-47 fighter will be run differently than previous fighter programs and share the same mission systems architecture as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That means advances in one will fuel advances in the other.